St. Patrick's Day 2009

Floor Speech

Mr. DURBIN. Well, Mr. President, it is St Patrick's Day, and you might notice a lot of green ties on the floor of the Senate. I notice the Presiding Officer has a nice one on.

I wish to just say for a moment how proud I am to have a grandmother, who passed away, named Mary Margaret Gaul, who was always proud of her Irish heritage and convinced us as kids that is where God would hang out, that great Republic of Ireland. It meant a lot to us growing up as kids to celebrate St. Patrick's Day with my grandmother and to try to continue that tradition in our own time.

But it goes beyond just family connections. It is almost impossible to overstate the importance of Ireland's contributions to America. From our earliest days as a nation, Ireland and America have been united by unbreakable bonds of friendship, family, and a shared commitment to liberty and freedom.

There is a great quote from George Washington, who once said:

When our friendless standard was first unfurled for resistance, who were the strangers who first mustered around our staff? And when it reeled in the fight, who more bravely sustained it than Erin's generous sons?

In the more than two centuries since then, America has been enriched immeasurably by the contributions of the Irish, and Irish Americans, in every field and every walk of life.

And the contributions go both ways.

It just was not the ``sons of Erin'' who stood and fought on our side with George Washington in the Revolution, it was a son of America, Brooklyn-born Eamonn deValera, who, in 1921, became the first President of a free Ireland.

And it was another son of Irish America, former Senate majority leader George Mitchell, who helped broker the Good Friday Peace Accord nearly 11 years ago.

That hard-won historic agreement laid out a path to end more than 30 years of sectarian bloodshed in Northern Ireland and create a new province, a new government, and a new dream.

For more than a decade, the Good Friday agreement has inspired people around the world to believe it is possible to resolve old hatreds, it is possible to heal old wounds.

To paraphrase the great Irish poet and Nobel laureate, Seamus Heaney, it is possible--with courage and diplomacy--for cooperation to replace confrontation and hope to triumph over history.

We have been horrified in recent days by the reprehensible murders in Northern Ireland of two unarmed British soldiers and a police constable. The two soldiers were days away from being dispatched to Afghanistan. They were the first British soldiers killed in Northern Ireland since that Good Friday agreement. The police constable's death was the first terrorist killing of a member of Northern Ireland's new, carefully balanced police force. The police force was created a couple years ago, and it is an important symbol of political reconciliation.

Their deaths appear to be the work of isolated extremists who have no place and no support in Northern Ireland today.

If it is possible for any good to come from these despicable acts, it is in the reactions of people in Northern Ireland. In the wake of the killings, we have seen a renewed commitment to peace and reconciliation. Former enemies on both sides of ``the Troubles'' have condemned the killings and vowed not to retaliate with violence.

Martin McGuiness, Deputy First Minister of Northern Ireland's power-sharing Government and leader of Sinn Fein, the political wing of the IRA, called the perpetrators of these killings: ``traitors to the island of Ireland.''

Leaders of Northern Ireland's two largest loyalist paramilitary groups--the Ulster Volunteer Force and the Ulster Defence Association--have also condemned the killings and vowed that they will not return to violence.

Most poignantly, we have seen the commitment to peace in the resolve of thousands of ordinary people in Northern Ireland.

Last Monday, on the morning after the killings of the two British soldiers at a military base, hundreds of people gathered in the nearby town of Antrim for a prayer service at the police cordon where the shootings took place.

The worshipers included members of the local Catholic, Presbyterian, Church of Ireland, and Methodist Churches--all praying together.

A Catholic priest told a reporter his parishioners were determined to show their outrage over the murders, but they wanted to do so collectively with their neighbors from other churches.

The priest told a reporter:

In the past, if something like this happened, people would withdraw into their own [separate] community. This time, everybody was united because it was an attack on everybody--on the peace we all own.

Last Wednesday, thousands more people attended dignified, silent ``peace rallies'' in Belfast, Derry, and other towns in Northern Ireland. Young and old, men and women, Protestants and Catholics stood shoulder to shoulder in the cold to express their horror at these killings and their resolve to maintain the Good Friday peace.

Signs carried by many of the more than 2,000 people who gathered at Belfast City Hall seemed to express their collective resolve. The signs read simply: ``No going back.''

Many of us remember how difficult the Northern Ireland peace negotiations were, how often they seemed on the verge of collapse. But their collective determination, and the wise leadership of George Mitchell, led them to an agreement, led them to use diplomats and politicians but also the faith and courage of ordinary people to bring organizations and institutions that had been at war for decades together in peace.

Last weekend, in Chicago, we had a great St. Patrick's Day celebration. We dyed the Chicago River green, drank a lot of beer, marched in parades. Everybody wore their green and had a glorious time.

I attended a breakfast honoring a great organization. The Irish American Partnership is working to create a more hopeful future for the children of Ireland--both north and south. They support educational and other efforts to replace old divisions with understanding and cooperation.

On this St. Patrick's Day, we want the people of Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland, and Great Britain to know America shares their grief and outrage over these killings. We also share their resolve never to go back.

Just as it was in America's national interest to help broker the Good Friday peace agreement, it is in our interest now to help the people of Northern Ireland reclaim that peace.

Now, before I yield the floor, I cannot let St. Patrick's Day pass without saying a word about a great man whose family has become synonymous with Irish America, with peace in Northern Ireland, and with so many other noble causes.

Senator Ted Kennedy--known as Sir Edward by those of us who are honored to call him a colleague--is not here on the Senate floor today. But we see his pride in his Irish heritage in the shamrock sugar cookies and green punch he had delivered to the Democratic cloakroom today, as he has done on every St. Patrick's Day for decades.

More importantly, we feel Ted Kennedy's influence in this Senate's efforts to promote justice and opportunity in our own Nation--to provide more Americans with jobs, health care, and education, so they can make a good life for themselves and their families.

On this St. Patrick's Day, I know I speak for all my colleagues in the Senate in wishing Senator Kennedy slainte.

To your health, Ted. We look forward to seeing you back soon.

A few months ago, Senator Kennedy's wife Vicki, at the Democratic Convention in Denver, handed me this little blue plastic bracelet. It has a word on it they made up for the occasion, so all of us who stand by Ted and think of him every day would carry this little reminder with a bracelet that says one word: Tedstrong.

Well, we are strong in our love for this great Senator. He has been strong in his love for this great country. It is a good thing to remember him on one of his happiest days, St. Patrick's Day.

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